Electric cars run out of range

The electric cars revolution has hit its first bump in the road.

Electric cars run out of range

14 March 2011Stephen Ottley

The electric cars revolution has hit its first bump in the road. According to reports from the United States several owners of Nissan's electric hatchback, the Leaf, have reported the car unexpectedly running out of charge and stopping.

Range-anxiety - the fear of an electric car running out of charge - is one of the biggest challenges facing the car industry as it attempts to convert motorists from fossil fuel to electricity.

The owners are reporting the remaining range indicated on the car's dashboard is rapidly dropping before putting the car into a "limp home mode" that slows the car to a crawl to conserve the remaining charge in the battery.

One owner reported the car went from showing 27km of range to coming to a halt in only eight kilometres of driving.

"Part of me is amused that I may go down in history as the first dumbass to drive the car into submission," the owner wrote. "But I am slightly shaky and upset as I thought there should have been no problem getting home."

Another reported the a similar situation with the car again dropping into the "limp home mode" before grinding to a halt.

A spokeswoman for Nissan USA said the company was investigating the reports but claimed they were "isolated" incidents.

The Nissan Leaf is due to go on sale in Australia next year and a spokesman for the local operation said he had not heard of the US reports, but said the company would look into them to find out what went wrong.

"I think the company needs to analyse the events that have gone on and check the reports, if indeed they were reportedly officially," Jeff Fisher, Nissan Australia spokesman said. "It's a bit hard to jump to conclusions on hearsay."

The Leaf has been making headlines in the United States as one of the first all-electric cars on sale. It is also one of three finalists in the 2011 World Car of the Year awards along with the Audi A8 and BMW 5-Series.

Mitsubishi and American sports car company Tesla, are the only manufacturers to offer fully electric cars in Australia at present. But Holden will offer the electric Volt next year and several other car companies are close to confirming plans to offer electric cars in Australia.